Play Your Best Game » Stop Trying
Stop Trying
By Chris Dorris
Do you really want to play your best? Are you sure you want to have as much fun as you possibly can playing golf? If you honestly answered these two questions “Yes,” then have I got some advice for you! Stop trying.
That’s right. Stop trying when you’re playing. When you take a mouthful of your favorite drink, do you say to yourself, “I’m going to do my best to swallow this”? Of course not. Have you ever said to someone, “Could you please stop talking to me; I’m trying to blink”? I doubt it. Why not? Because swallowing and blinking are involuntary behaviors. That means you don’t have to think about them to do them. They just happen on their own.
When you get up in the morning, do you think to yourself, “I’m going to go try to brush my teeth”? Nope. You just do it. And that’s because you’ve done it so many times it has become second nature. Your muscles remember how to brush your teeth so your brain doesn’t have to. There’s no “trying” going on; you’re just doing it. Remember what Yoda said to Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars” when Luke was trying to raise his starship out of the swamp with his mental powers? “There is no try, there is only do.”
So, if you can master all these things without even trying, then why are you trying so hard on the golf course? If your answer is anything like “because I want to score better, dummy,” then I recommend you read the rest of this article very carefully.
Scoring better in golf doesn’t come from trying harder to score better. Great golf, just like great tooth brushing, comes from just doing. The funny thing about golf is that the less you focus on your score, the better your score gets. Hmmmm. Why might that be?
Well, think about it. Try this: brush your teeth and count the number of times you move the brush upwards. Make sure you brush at the same speed you normally would. Can’t do it. And there’s no need to, either. Just like there’s no need to worry about the score when you’re playing golf. The number of times you brush upwards when brushing your teeth takes care of itself, and the number of strokes it takes you to complete the 18 holes takes care of itself too!
Now, young golfers have a great advantage over the adults out there counting their strokes the whole time. See, as you play golf over the years, you encounter more and more people who ask you the following questions: “What did you shoot?” and, “What’s your handicap?” These are dangerous questions because over time, after you’ve been asked these questions hundreds of times, you gradually begin to believe what you score is the ultimate measure of how good a golfer you are.
Once you start to believe that, the only way to measure how good you are is by having low scores. You get away from the just playing approach to golf, and you start trying to lower your scores. Unfortunately, just like when you try to count the number of times you brush upwards when brushing your teeth and mess it all up, when you try to count your strokes, you mess it all up too. Trust that the score takes care of itself and all you need to do its keep PLAYING.
Starting right now, whenever someone asks you after a round how you shot, say something like, “I hit my irons really well, I went through my pre-shot routine thoroughly before each shot, and my putting needs a little practice. All in all, I had a lot of fun.” They’ll say, “Yeah, but what was your score?” And you enthusiastically tell them whatever the number was, in the same manner and tone that you’d answer the question, “What’s today’s date?” It’s a very “as a matter of fact” sort of attitude you have about the number you shot.
Remember, your score is only one of many, many ways to measure your success at golf. Other ways include how well you controlled your emotions, how well and how consistently you executed your pre-shot routine, how well you were able to win without bragging, how honorably you took defeat, how much you were able to appreciate the beauty of the golf course and the day, how well you stuck to your game plan, and how much FUN you had.
There is a time and a place for trying at golf. It’s on the practice range. That is the only place you should try to improve. When you’re out on the golf course, all that matters is PLAYING. Think about that for a second. Playing. That’s what we do for fun. We play. Well, then, how nice it is to know that all we have to do to succeed at golf is play and have fun. Pretty cool sport, huh?
Chris Dorris
Dorris Performance Psychology
80 East Rio Salado Parkway, Suite 310
Tempe, AZ 85281
(480) 449-4728
www.christopherdorris.com
